Homecoming
by Rurouni Tyriel
Summary: (ONE-SHOT) Dark Seid has returned home to Apokolips after his disastrous near-death at the hands of Superman and Brainiac, only to find that in his absence chaos has reigned on the desolate world of Apokolips.


  

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Justice League, though I damn well wish I did.  Or maybe just Supergirl.  Oh yeah.  After watching 'Initiation' I am definitely smitten.

**Summary:**

Dark Seid has returned home to Apokolips after his disastrous near-death at the hands of Superman, only to find that in his absence chaos has reigned on the desolate world of Apokolips.  Very short story focusing on the New Gods of Apokolips.  Takes place after the events of 'Twilight' and 'Hereafter.'

Dark Seid grinned triumphantly, standing over the defeated body of Orion.  Not dead, no.  Right now he had more important matters to attend to.  Taking care of the Justice League before they destroyed Brainiac, for example.  Or freed Superman.  For now, he would spare the boy.  Not out of sense of mercy, of course.  Out of necessity.

Dark Seid turned... and his eyes opened wide.

There he stood.  The Kryptonian, arms folded across his chest, glaring over at Dark Seid.  Even at this distance he could feel the waves of hatred and anger coming off of his opponent, and he drank them in eagerly, even as a slight twinge came to his black heart.  A sliver of fear.

"Any minute now Brainiac will explode," said Superman grimly.  "And guess what?  You're going with him."

Dark Seid frowned.  He didn't have time for this.  Quickly he reached down, trying to grab Orion's mother-box to activate a boom-tube...

... when suddenly it exploded, blasted by a bright beam of heat that nearly scorched Dark Seid's hand.  He clutched it grimly as he stood, glancing back over at Superman as he continued to speak.  He was more than a little surprised.  Superman was not pulling any punches this time.

"No Dark Seid," he said.  "To get off this rock you have to go through me."

Dark Seid almost laughed aloud at that, and rested his arm by his side as he turned to regard Kal-El.

"You really are a glutton for punishment," he said, though it was phrased as a question instead of a statement.  "Time and again I've beaten you... humbled you..." he said, calling upon their clashes.  The invasion of Earth, the brainwashing of Kal-El into becoming his soldier of war, the death of Dan Turpin.  "What makes you think today's outcome will be any different?" asked Dark Seid with an evil smirk.

Superman's scowl grew, if possible, even darker, and both of his arms dropped down to his sides as he spoke.  "Because this time, I won't stop until you're just a greasy smear on my fist," he growled.  "Let's go."

Dark Seid obliged, giving a full blast of his Omega Beams straight at Superman, who dodged aside and flew straight for him, both fists extended...

The battle had gone rather as Dark Seid had expected.  For a short while the Kryptonian had indeed had the upper hand, but he'd quickly reasserted his full power and knocked Kal-El to the ground, slamming his booted foot down atop of his face.  Kal-El's hands gripped his leg but it was impossible to push him off.  He was entirely too strong, and too heavy.  Plus the angle was all wrong.

"This is where you belong Superman," hissed Dark Seid.  "Under my heel."

He grinded his foot down more, crushing Superman's features, but then suddenly... it started to feel warm.  Then hot.  Two bright circles of red appeared on his boot.  The bastard, he was using his heat blasts, thought Dark Seid.  Grimly he pushed harder, but the blasts rocketed clear through his boot and then his foot, slicing up straight through the air, making Dark Seid give a faint grunt in pain.  The agony pushed Dark Seid back, clutching his knee as his entire leg almost seemed to give out on him, awash in pain.

It was enough for Superman to get out from underneath him and flip onto his feet.

Blows were exchanged, both of them pushing themselves to destroy the other.  Dark Seid had no more patience for Superman anymore, he was angry.  And Superman was as far beyond that word as could be humanly possible.  Neither was willing to give the other ground, both struck for the face, neither bothered to block, just take the blows and returned them with all the force behind them they could muster.

Unfortunately, Dark Seid could not muster quite as much.

The next blow nearly did him in, slamming into his jaw in a powerful uppercut that sent him careening through the air and into the ceiling, crashing through the metal plates clear to the other end of the corridor, where he collapsed, covered in metal plates and sparking wires.  Gas filled the air, as did sparks of light, and the station shook again.  It wouldn't last much longer, and certainly their battle was shortening whatever lifespan the station had left to it.

Dark Seid grimly tried to push himself up, but his arms felt like lead weights, and the meager weight of the plates on his back was pushing him down.  He couldn't do it.  He didn't have sufficient time or strength.  And then, as he peered up, he saw Superman coming for him, his face set in a grim expression Dark Seid knew all too well.

Superman was coming to finish the job.

"Superman!" came a voice, 'causing both of the combatants to look down the corridor.  Superman whirled around, spotting his dark friend.  The human with the cape and cowl, with the symbol of the bat on his chest.  Dark Seid remembered him from his first visit to the Justice League's Watchtower.  The one who'd ordered them to restrain Superman and hear him out.

"Go!  I'm finishing this!" shouted Superman, turning back to his slow, deliberate march towards Dark Seid.  The dark-clad Leaguer rushed over towards Superman, and his voice dropped down to a low pitch so that Dark Seid couldn't even hear what he said next.  But whatever it was, it seemed to have angered already enraged Kryptonian.  He backhanded his own partner, slamming him hard against the wall.

"Get out of here!" he shouted.  "Now."

Superman had been pushed to his limits.  He wasn't allowing anyone to interfere with his fight anymore.  Dark Seid almost smirked.  If he'd approached Superman when he was like this, the boy might well have taken his offer to join him at his side on Apokolips.

Evidently, the black-clad man could see he wasn't going to reason with his comrade.  But that didn't stop him from leaping up and grasping Superman hard around the neck.  Was he insane?  The Kryptonian would break him in two!

But then he activated a boom-tube, and Dark Seid saw his plan.  To suck them both backwards through it to a point of the dark-clad man's choosing.  As he watched, the vortex also swallowed up Orion, taking his traitorous son through to the other side, leaving only Dark Seid behind in the rubble.  He grinned, feeling a trickle of blood escape his lips and dribble down his chin.  But despite this, he felt victorious.

"Heh... loser," said Dark Seid, watching as his opponent was dragged through the boom-tube by his own ally.  Leaving only one living being on the floating station-head-fortress of Brainiac.  Uxas of Apokolips, better known to the world at large as Dark Seid.

Grunting, the dark lord allowed himself to more freely show the strain of battle, now that none were present to witness it.  One of his most fundamental rules was never to show weakness.  Be it of physical nature or character.  Never allow yourself to lose control.  Kalibak was a monumental failure in learning that simple lesson.  It was really difficult to believe that he was Dark Seid's own son, at times.  But then again, Orion was much the same way.  Neither were truly suitable heirs to his empire.  Not that he intended to leave it to anyone, once he solved the Anti-Life Equation.

But enough of that, he had scarcely more than a few moments until Brainiac was destroyed, according to Kal-El.  The shaking of the structure certainly was evident enough that he hadn't been lying.  Pushing himself to his feet, Dark Seid staggered off down the corridor, seeking an exit.  Surely Brainiac would have installed escape pods.  To back-up his knowledge if something like this happened if nothing else, he imagined.  Grimacing, he gripped his shoulder as a fresh wave of pain washed over it.  His fight with Kal-El had been almost brutal, and he'd struck a spot where he'd been wounded before only days earlier.  Small wonder he'd nearly lost.  If he'd been in top form, he would have indeed taught the boy a lesson.

The station shook again.  Violently.  Dark Seid barely managed to keep his feet, and re-doubled his pace, dragging his right foot behind him.  Heat beams had ripped clear through his boot and foot, and it hurt abysmally to walk, yet he had little choice.  When he was back on Apokolips, he could rest, he could heal, he could plot his next move.  But for now, he had to keep moving.

Another violent shake, and this time Dark Seid deed indeed lose his footing.  That shaking did not stop this time, and Dark Seid knew that there was little else he could do.

A deafening explosion split the air, and a wave of white light washed over him...

Many long days later...

 "Anything to report, helmsman?" asked Steppenwolf, leaning back wearily in his command seat.  Since the vanishing of his Dark Seid, Apokolips had been in a near perpetual state of unrest with various factions seeking power.  Steppenwolf, however, carefully kept himself out of such struggles, seeing no point to them.  Despite his love for violence, he had no love for authority.  He was content to follow, not lead.

Right now he was doing close to nothing, patrolling the borders of Apokolips on the one-and-a-million chance he'd run into some ships from New Genesis and get a chance to engage them in combat.  He owed them, he thought darkly.  He was in a dark mood often these days.  After their last skirmish with New Genesis, Steppenwolf's ship had been boomed entirely too close to Apokolips, crashing full force into a burn hole and nearly killing them all.  As far as he knew, or cared, Steppenwolf had been the only survivor of the invasion.  Though they'd lost many more ground troops and very nearly Desaad, Kalibak, and Dark Seid himself in the attack.  Steppenwolf had been dragged off to the pits for his failure, barely given even a chance to recover from his wounds before being sent to work.

But it had all changed only days later, after Brainiac had been driven off.  Dark Seid had vanished, presumed dead in the explosion that took the monstrous machine.

And now Apokolips was in the throes of chaos the likes it hadn't seen in nearly fifty years.

Steppenwolf growled darkly, and those crewmen present carefully avoided his gaze.  He'd been known to kill for lesser reasons than being angry, and none had any desire to die anytime soon.

"Sir?" asked the helmsman, peering down at the computer screen which was flashing a bright red.

"What is it?" asked Steppenwolf, oddly enough not irritated.  He would welcome a change to floating aimlessly through space back around Apokolips.  It was unpleasant work, but right now it was all he could do.  Until a new leader was chosen for Apokolips.  Idly, he noticed they were nearing the asteroid belt that marked the very borders of Apokolips (as the New Genesis-Apokolips treated marked them).

"It's the asteroid belt sir... part of it looks like it was... well..."

"Spit it out, lieutenant," grumbled the general.  Not for the first time, he longed for someone he could carry on a worthy conversation with.  Like his nephew, Dark Seid.  Or maybe even that sniveling fool Desaad.  But they were both gone now, and he was reduced to simpletons like his helmsman and hulking idiots like Kalibak and Stompa.

"It looks like there was a massive explosion there sir," said the Helmsman.

"Show me," replied Steppenwolf, leaning back in his chair, one hand coming up to idly stroke his short beard and moustache.

The helmsman obliged, punching up an image on the viewscreen.  There, indeed, was a large hole in the asteroid belt.  Wide, clear of rocks, though one or two had drifted back in.  "Zoom in," he ordered.  As the image magnified, Steppenwolf made out shapes among the asteroids.  Metal fragments.  A station, likely.  A big one too.  Perhaps this had been the sight of the battle that had claimed the life of Dark Seid.

A rare smile made its way onto Steppenwolf's lips as he imagined what it must've been life.  A life-or-death struggle against the powerful Kryptonian and a psychotic, world-destroying computer from his own homeworld.  And against them, the great Dark Seid.  He wished he could have been there.  Worthy foes like that were hard to come by.

"Sir?" came the Helmsman's voice again, disrupting his reverie.  He scowled darkly.

"What?"

"Uhm... well... just got this strange reading.  Uhm, it seems like... there's a life-form out there sir."

"A life form?" asked Steppenwolf.  In the void, he asked silently.  Unlikely.  Few species in the galaxy were capable of existing in the void without a need for oxygen or some similar gas in their lungs (or equivalent).  Plus, it was immeasurably cold in space, and even if a species was capable of existing without breathing, their skin would turn to ice in under a few hours.  So far, the only exception Steppenwolf had heard of were the Czarnians, but they'd all been wiped out by one of their own.  Now the only member of that unsavory race was the intergalactic menace Lobo.

Then a particularly unsavory thought occurred to him.

"Focus the scan," he ordered, standing before his command chair, his body tense.  "I want details.  Find out who or what that life-form is."

Not that Steppenwolf feared Lobo, not by any stretch of the imagination.  But the Czarnian was an annoyance and a general bringer of destruction and chaos, and Apokolips had enough trouble without dealing with someone like him.  They'd sooner welcome back Kal-El and the Justice League.

"Identifying... life-signs are inert," read one of the crewmen.  "Whoever it is went into cold-sleep, they're almost dead out there.  They're clinging on to life by a thread."

"Species?" asked Steppenwolf.

"Checking database now... not that... no... no... ah, we have it!"

"Well?!" growled Steppenwolf, fingering the sword at side.  He was going to need a new helmsman soon, he suspected.

"Sir its... someone from home.  Someone from Apokolips.  Unmistakable."

"Bring them aboard," ordered Steppenwolf, making his way off the bridge and down to the docking bays where the life-form would be brought on board.  Steppenwolf already knew exactly who it was.  The evidence was all there, and he'd spent enough time as a hunter to recognize clues when they were presented to him.

His stride lengthened as he eagerly made his way down.  At last, his waiting had not been in vain.  All was going to be as it should be.

A great boom tube opened on the surface of Apokolips.  A small one, the sort used by individuals rather than fleets or swarming armies of para-demons and ships.  As it was, only four individuals stepped out of the boom tube before it closed back shut.

Two were distinctly female, slender and shapely, one with carefully drawn back black locks, dressed in black cloth and armored in steel.  The other with a wild mop of green hair and a maniacal grin on her features, dressed in little more than a halter and loincloth and distinct black tattoos.  The third figure was also female, but you couldn't tell by her outline.  She was big and very muscular, built like a bull, half as smart and twice as dumb, dressed like some sort of crash test dummy with a helmet that was more show than anything else.  These were the Furies.  Lashina, Mad Hariette, and Stompa.

And the final to emerge with a great giant of a man, easily overshadowing the brutish Stompa by a good foot and a half.  He too, however, was stout, easily as wide as he was tall, all muscle, with extra big, abnormally thick arms and short but still powerful legs.  A great black beard graced his chin, and his dark hair was worn long, flowing down to mid-back.  He was dressed in greens, a great club of metal hanging at his side as he stepped back onto Apokoliptic soil and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ahh, what a relief to finally be home," said Kalibak, wasting no time in striding back towards the palace.  The Furies grabbed up their hover-disks and floated after him, keeping a respectful pace behind him.  None of them had any desire to cross the will of the new Lord of Apokolips.  He was easily twice as brutal as his father, and with absolutely none of his delicacy or tact.

"I really should thank Granny for sending you three to Earth.  Not that I needed your assistance," he added darkly.  Which was true enough, he had escaped the prison from Metropolis before they'd arrived, and would've made it off the planet if not for the interference of that damn bastard Lobo.  As it was, he'd had to creep away with his motherbox smashed to bits, unable to get a ride home until the Furies had shown up.

"Oh, Granny Goodness didn't send us," stated Lashina as she drifted down closer to ground level, her hover-disk skimming over the surface of the ground as she stayed only a foot or so behind Kalibak's slow, ape-like steps.

"Oh?  Who did?" he asked, glancing at her in surprise.  With Dark Seid dead, he had been the most powerful individual on the planet.  With him gone, Steppenwolf was the next in the line of authority, but he'd been off-world for ages now, patrolling the borders.  Granny Goodness was the next most likely person.  And if it wasn't her, or the furies themselves... then... who...?

Wait a minute.  Had her voice changed when she'd said that last sentence?  She sounded almost... delighted.  Playful, almost.  Then again, that was Lashina's nature.  Kalibak ignored it, marching towards his palace, as always ignoring the slaves who milled about.

But he did pay attention to a particular edifice newly being erected.  Out of respect to his father, Kalibak had decided not to demolish his statue as Dark Seid had done to his own father when he'd seized control of the planet.  However, Kalibak was having the slaves work tirelessly to construct another one, just beside it.  One of himself.  Noble, powerful, proud.  All of his finest characteristics were being into his stone features, and he gave a smirk of satisfaction.  Having control of Apokolips almost made up for his failed battles against Kal-El and Lobo.  Still, he'd repay them in time.  He was stronger than they were, he'd crush them next time.

When he neared the palace gates, however, he found they were sealed.  Growling, Kalibak glanced over at the Furies, but they flitted away like bats, leaving him alone.  Growling, he pushed open the doors.  The flames cast by the pits illuminated the throne room brightly, but to Kalibak's eyes he could only see shapes and shadows.  And one of those shadows was sitting in -his- throne!

"Who dares sit in the throne of Apokolips?!" roared Kalibak, taking a few giant steps forward, raising his iron club... skidding abruptly to a stop as his vision cleared and he drew closer.  The club dropped from his nerveless fingers.

"-I- dare," came a cold voice.

 "Father..." said Kalibak, immediately falling to his knees.  Dark Seid's expression, one of disdain and disgust, did not change in the lightest.  He was very, very angry.  Kalibak could tell that just by looking at him.

"Silence," hissed Dark Seid in his icy cold voice.  "I return to Apokolips to find it in a state of unrest unmatched since Yuga Kahn controlled this planet.  And whom do I find responsible, but my ignorant, foolish son," he added darkly, his eyes blazing as he regarded Kalibak, who would've, then and there, likely traded everything he had for a chance to be somewhere else.  Anywhere than right under his father's disapproving gaze.

"Worst still is the information I hear of news... -beyond- Apokolips," remarked Dark Seid, clicking his mother-box and activating a viewscreen that materialized out of thin air above both their heads.  Images scrolled across it.  Kalibak, dressed in worthless human robes, hiding who he was, working alongside humans and freaks, working under Metallo's orders, no less.  Fighting the Justice League.  Dark Seid supposed he could have given credit to Kalibak for defeated Wonder Woman in hand-to-hand combat, but any pride he felt towards his second-born son was immediately gone as he saw his ignoble defeat at the hands of an mere mortal in a black cape and cowl, with no special powers of his own.

 "You left Apokolips without my permission," stated Dark Seid, counting off the offenses.  "You attacked Superman without my permission.  You engaged the Justice League.  You violated our treaty with New Genesis and would have, if you'd been discovered, risked open war, which we are not yet ready for.  You were defeated by a low-life bounty hunter... -and-," he said darkly.  Then, he clicked his mother-box, and another, final image came up on the screen.  One that likely would seal Kalibak's doom.

It was Superman, alive and well, back from the dead.  Toyman's disintegrator beam had failed.  The Revenge Squad had failed.  And more important, Kalibak had failed.

"You didn't even manage to kill him."

Kalibak covered his head, closing his eyes and fully expected to be blasted away by Omega beams at any moment.

"Get out of my sight," growled Dark Seid, waving his hand idly.  Kalibak, nearly stunned by the relief that he was not going to be obliterated, turned and all but ran for the door, nearly tripping over his short legs in the process as he hurled himself towards the exit.  "And Kalibak...," Dark Seid added, 'causing the short, dark-haired man to skid to a stop awkwardly.  Again fearful, he turned around to regard Dark Seid.

"... there is a monstrosity outside my palace," said Dark Seid, his words casual, even if his tone was again full of disapproval.  Kalibak knew instantly what he was referring to.  His own statue.  "Destroy it."

"Yes... yes father... right away..." said Kalibak, immediately running out of the doors and slamming them shut behind him.  Dark Seid leaned back on his throne.  Dimly, he could hear Kalibak yelling, throwing his weight around, blaming the workers for his own vanities, ordering them to destroy the monstrosity of a statue he'd erected beside his own.  Well, thought Dark Seid, at least some potential existed in him.

His thoughts turning away from the material world, Dark Seid now focused inward.  Thinking.  Plotting.  Preparing his next move.  After his encounter with Brainiac and the Justice League, he was unsure of what move to make next.  The solution to the Anti-Life Equation had been within his grasp... and he'd nearly succeeded in a decades-long quest... only to have it snatched away from him by his own son Orion and a handful of meddlesome heroes from Earth.

However, Dark Seid did take a certain perverse joy in the fact that, once again, he'd gotten under Superman's invulnerable skin and driven him to the brink of a deadly rage.  He never imagined the runt could be so powerful.  He had nearly destroy Dark Seid himself, and very narrow indeed had the margin been by which he'd escaped.  And not entirely unscathed.  If not for the dark-cloaked member of the League... Batman, if he remembered the name correctly... Superman may have well finished off Dark Seid that day.  And that was where he took his most perverse joy.  He had brought out the darkness that lurked in Superman's heart.  Driven him to become as much of a monster as Dark Seid.  He'd smacked aside his own ally for interfering in their fight.  Truly, he had great potential to be a dark warrior.  Only his ideals stood in the way.  Just like his son Orion.

Dark Seid frown grew, if possible, even darker.  In dealing with New Genesis for temporary peace, it seemed he had gotten the short end of the straw.  Highfather's son, Scott Free, had fled Apokolips as soon as he'd been old enough.  He'd even led a rebellion and managed to escape with a few of the slaves of Apokolips, including a rather promising young woman whom Granny Goodness had been grooming to become another one of her furies.  Barda, if Dark Seid recalled the name correctly.

But Orion remained at Highfather's side.  Now both were lost to the dark lord.  Orion had no love for his father, it seemed.  He had no interest in Dark Seid in anything other than an opponent.  True, this motivation had made him a powerful warrior in his own right, and Dark Seid felt mild fatherly pride towards his first-born, but it was as he had told Orion on the Brainiac station.  He would not allow anyone, not even him, to stand in his way.

He had been a contributing factor to his near-death on the Brainiac station.  He'd delayed him, slowed him down, when if it was merely the Thanagarian and the Martian, Brainiac and Dark Seid might have prevailed, and the Anti-Life Equation might have finally been solved.  As it was, he'd only narrowly escaped with his life, and Brainiac with far less.

But he'd survived.  He always did.  Nothing could destroy the great Dark Seid.

But... something was nagging him.  Some part in the back of his mind that had been almost forgotten.  It was like an itch he could not reach, inside his memories, and it was driving him mad.  Issuing an order to a nearby para-demon, he sent them to fetch Steppenwolf.  He wanted his opinion on this.

Steppenwolf arrived almost immediately, giving a respectful bow before Dark Seid.

"My lord, what do you require of me?" he asked, going down onto one knee, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

"For the moment, nothing," replied Dark Seid coldly.  "Stay where you are, and listen."

Dark Seid opened his eyes wide, unleashing his Omega blasts at a point just to the left of Steppenwolf, who had nearly jumped out of his skin upon seeing the blasts.  They rarely meant anything good.  To his relief, he saw Dark Seid wasn't using them to destroy.  No, not destroy.  To bring back.

Desaad cringed fearfully, exactly as he had many weeks ago when Dark Seid had finally grown tiresome of his sniveling, questioning nature and obliterated him with his Omega beams.  A power that Dark Seid had discovered himself after his time in the Infinity Pits, his Omega Beams could not only destroy, but anything he struck down with them could be, at his discretion, instantly restored.  It was for this reason he so casually used them, blasting away any who disobeyed him.  In the unlikely event he still needed them, like for Desaad's expertise in all matters technical, they were not beyond recall.

"I... I am alive," stated Desaad.  He had been brought back often enough to know how it felt.  It was, needless to say, not a pleasant experience.

"You are," stated Dark Seid, eager to be done with trivial details like comfort.  "Do not mistake this for a gesture of mercy, Desaad.  No one questions me," he stated, his eyes blazing softly.  "No one."

"Yes my lord," he said, giving a low bow, the cowl of his purple robes obscuring his features before he brushed it back a little.  "What do you require of me?"

"Information.  Specifically, how I could have survived a blast that, for all practical purposes, destroyed a space station as large as a small moon," he said, leaning back in his chair and glancing between both of them.  Desaad and Steppenwolf exchanged glances, but for a moment neither spoke.

"It... it wasn't your time?" said Desaad hesitantly.

Ah.  That was where the nagging feeling had come from, thought Dark Seid.  He remembered now.

_Destiny played an integral part of the lives of all those who lived on New Genesis and Apokolips.  Two planets that had once been one, now divided by both landscape and virtue of its people.  Each one had a specific destiny in mind, and the Source and the Infinity Pit regulated those destinies.  They oversaw and guided, but in truth the matter was largely left to the power of those individuals who lived on the two planets.  Particularly Highfather and Dark Seid._

_Like Dark Seid, Izaya the Inheritor had received the planet of New Genesis from its former leader.  Not by dethroning them in a bloody coup, or waiting for them to vanish into the void and never be seen again, of course.  Izaya had received it from his father, though he had never felt comfortable with the mantle of leadership.  With all the burdens of past, present, and on occasion even the future on his shoulders.  His people believed in him, however, and it gave him the strength to lead them as best he saw fit._

_Izaya__ the Inheritor had once been like Orion.  Perhaps that was why he'd permitted the young boy so many freedoms when he normally would have sternly lectured him on the dangers of interfering with Dark Seid and Apokolips.  But Izaya too had been part of the great war against Apokolips.  He'd been a warrior, cut from the same cloth as Orion, until he'd grown disillusioned with battle.  It did not bring glory, it did not bring satisfaction, it did not bring peace.  It brought only blood and death.  So he'd left on a journey of self-discovery, and eventually come into contact with the Source.  It had changed him, though again in a marked differently way than Dark Seid had been changed by the Infinity Pits on Apokolips.  He had emerged as High Father.  And with his newfound powers and wisdom, forged a peace-treaty with the warmongers of Apokolips, ending the war._

_Highfather did not claim to understand the future.  He did not claim to know his destiny, nor the destiny of everyone on Apokolips or New Genesis.  The Source had told him as much, that he could not know everything and remain who he was, and thus he refused such knowledge.  But at times, he sought its council.  When he'd forged the treaty, he had asked its advice.  It had suggested Highfather offer his son to Dark Seid, and receive his own.  Highfather had been, initially, shocked (his own son?) but the Source had told him then that his son, Scott Free, would return to New Genesis when he was older, the better for his experience._

_But the more important matter of the treaty was Orion.  Highfather was to raise him, to teach him morals and values and save him from the evil and rage inherent in his blood.  And, it told him, it was Orion's and Orion's destiny alone to destroy Dark Seid's evil.  In the ghetto's of Apokolips, where Dark Seid had abandoned him, Orion would confront his father and destroy him._

_That was their destiny.  Orion's to slay his father, Dark Seid's to die by his son's hand._

_Dark Seid did not know this.  The Infinity Pit on Apokolips would never tell him.  It offered only power, little else.  And Highfather would not tell Orion._

_It was not his place to interfere with destiny._

 "So it was not my time to die," remarked Dark Seid, standing and folding his arms behind his back.  Desaad and Steppenwolf shrunk back fearfully.  Like the other inhabitants of Apokolips, they knew of fate, they knew their destinies had been spelled out for them the day they were born.  But Dark Seid had never come to truly accepted that.  He forged his own destiny.  He worked for it even now, to tear down the universe and make it his own.

"Is this supposed to comfort me?  That until such time as the universe dictates as it sees fit, I cannot perish?" he said, his voice raising a fraction higher that usual.  Both Desaad and Steppenwolf recognized that as anger.  Intense anger.  Dark Seid's voice rarely rose in volume (and why would it, whenever he spoke all listened) but when it did, it meant he was truly angry.

"Great Dark Seid," said Steppenwolf, trying to calm him marginally.  "We did not mean to imply you are not master of your own destiny.  To even suggest such a thing is foolish..."

"Most foolish," agreed Dark Seid, though his eyes blazed like twin suns as he regarded them both.

"I, ah... yes, of course..." said Desaad, backtracking as quickly as he could.  "I am sure I could find a proper reason.  Uhm, surely, there must be some reason you survived the explosion.  I mean, you are most powerful lord Dark Seid but if you require, uhm... reassurances..."

"Enough," said Dark Seid, and without turning his eye he launched his Omega blasts.  In seconds, both Desaad and Steppenwolf had been obliterated.

Small matter.  With little effort on his part he could restore them.  But right now, he had no need of them.  And what he had no need of, he destroyed.

Dark Seid frowned, his dark and craggy face, so like a rock, scrunched darkly as he narrowed his eyes.  It could not be true.  Bound by a destiny, to die at any time simply because it was, his 'time.'  No, he would not accept it.  He would do whatever he could to change his destiny.  He would forge his own destiny.  He would forge a destiny for the entire universe.  Once he had a solution to the Anti-Life Equation, he could begin.  He could tear down the universe to the nothingness from which it had originally been made.  He would then rebuild... in his own image.

He smiled then, though it was as frightful a sight as his glower.  Yes, yes indeed.  He almost had the Equation solved once.  Perhaps, with a little work, he could rebuild, based on what had happened.

"Summon Granny Goodness and Virmin Vundabar," stated Dark Seid, summoning more of his loyal servants.  The Furies had earned a little time to themselves right now, and Kalibak was still being punished for his usurping the throne.  Kanto was still stationed on Earth.  He'd returned there shortly after the troublesome matter with Granny's failed comet.  And even now he was supplying information to Apokolips and, more importantly, right to Dark Seid.  Information was just as powerful a weapon as brute strength.  Another lesson Kalibak had yet to even begin to learn.

When his agents had gathered, Dark Seid interlaced his fingers, leaning forward slightly on his throne to regard them both.

"It is time for us to begin again," he said.  "And this time.  We shall be triumphant."

**Author's Notes:**

The first segment is, of course, a written part of the episode 'Twilight' involving the brutal conflict between Dark Seid and Superman.  Obviously to save time and space I skipped the majority of their fight.  Uxas is Dark Seid's real, original name.  After he was transformed by the Omega Force from the Infinity Pit on Apokolips into his current form, he took the name Dark Seid to reflect his new change.  And yes, oddly enough, General Steppenwolf is Dark Seid's uncle.  But then again, Apokolips and New Genesis have somewhat peculiar family trees.  Lobo is the last of his species, same as Superman is.  However, Lobo destroyed his entire homeworld and all his people himself.  A school science project or so he says.  Gave himself an A.  The idea that he is capable of surviving in the void is not theoretical, it's the darn truth.  He rides that darn-space bike in the void all the time with apparently no need for oxygen and no protection from the cold.  His skin must be damn tough indeed.  Yuga Kahn was the first ruler of Apokolips and, you guessed it, Dark Seid's father.  He became imprisoned in the Source trying to unravel its secrets.  Scott Free is Mr. Miracle, spotted briefly in 'Twilight' with the rest of the Forever People and (as rumors have it) will soon appear on Justice League Unlimited with Barda, whom he did take with him from Apokolips.  They married.  Barda some fans of the DCAU might remember from the Batman Beyond episode 'The Call.'  Dark Seid, as well as most of the New Gods of Apokolips and New Genesis are indeed bound by destiny.  Specifically, Dark Seid's destiny is to die at the hands of Orion (whose destiny is to kill him (something that no doubt would please Orion if he knew it)) but -only- in the ghetto's of Apokolips.  Kanto, in case no one recognizes the name, was an agent who supplied Intergang with weapons in an early episode of the Superman series and never appeared again since.  I'd nearly forgotten all about him myself.


End file.
